Salzburg, December 26, 2023 (KAP) Christmas has consequences for our daily actions and is a call for forgiveness rather than revenge: Salzburg Auxiliary Bishop Hansjörg Hofer reminded us of this on Boxing Day. The bishop spoke especially Saint Stephen, celebrated on December 26th, considered the first martyr of Christianity. Even today there are still such “Stephanus people” “who do not fight back and take revenge”, but instead “renounce their rights for the sake of peace and thus break the spiral of violence”. The former Christian deacon is said to have been stoned in front of the city walls of Jerusalem for blasphemy. His year of death is believed to have been between 34 and 37 AD.
The “people of Stephanus” described by Hofer are not “the noisy people who beat the drums loudly” but rather those who “follow 'the path of small steps' toward Jesus.” They are not losers either, but rather “people with firmness and a firm conviction that this is the only way for the world to have a future and to be able to survive”. The “Stephanus people” would take the message of Christmas to the world and thus make it more human and livable, said the auxiliary bishop of Salzburg.
Christmas shows believers that Jesus, as the Son of God, is the savior of the world and the one “who seeks us as humans and is therefore completely in solidarity with us as humans and shares our lives,” Hofer explained. In the case of Estêvão, this promise gave him the strength to forgive even his tormentors.
Hofer also referred to the image of Jesus as a child in the manger: God did not come “with bombs and shells, nor with fire and lightning, nor with trumpets and drums, but in the helplessness of a child.” This shows the connection between God and people and that God dives into our lives. “Jesus seeks us so much that he leaves nothing out: neither illness nor death, nor fear and suffering, suffering and hopelessness, dead ends and failure,” said the auxiliary bishop.